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This sentiment might horrify some parenting organizations, but sometimes fictional characters serve as far better role models than real people. If well-executed, they provide audiences of all ages with a personal point of reference from which to learn and — if they’re lucky — grow. Seeing as how reading is fundamental, and an essential component of a well-rounded education, looking up or relating to proud, avowed bookworms never hurts. The following heroes and heroines, despite their obvious blunders and Areas That Need Improving, provide the bibliophiles of the world a point of reference grounding the fantastic into the realistic.

Matilda Wormwood from Matilda:

Roald Dahl’s classic dark comedy follows the quirky narrative of a neglected little girl whose only solace in a family of imbeciles are her covert sojourns to the local library. Sweet little Matilda Wormwood piques the curiosity of her kindly teacher Miss Honey for her boundless intelligence and literary lusts, whose marginalization winds up with one of the most triumphant psychic revenges this side of Carrie. But nobody dies or receives grievous bodily injuries in her hilariously clever defense of bullied students, so the eponymous heroine makes for a perfectly lovely little role model.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast:

Many a budding young bibliophiliac girl (and probably a few comfortable boys) just loved themselves some Belle from Disney’s adaptation of an ancient European fairy tale. Stockholm Syndrome and unfortunate lessons in how domestic violence can be cured with true love (pro tip: it can’t) aside, her love of books, learning, and imagination, remains commendable. Even though the townsfolk devote an entire song to how totally freakish it is for a lady to enjoy a life of the mind — and allegedly sexy stalker Gaston tries to lure her away with talks of marriage — she sticks to what works best for her and dismisses their petty little judgments. There are just too many books and too little time to care!

Beast from the X-Men series:

OK, so technically he’s a Secret Avenger now, but shut up, fanboy. Probably the world’s most erudite little fuzzums (or at least the world’s most erudite little blue fuzzums), Hank McCoy sports a, well, beastly appearance proving that it’s stupid to judge one’s intelligence and worth on their externals. Despite living the at-once triumphant and tragic life of a superhero, he considers science and culture the most exciting of all. And all that book learnin’ goes directly toward making the world a more equitable place for his fellow mutants. Or, at least, he tries. Fun fact: Did you know that Hank McCoy was born in Illinois?

Oscar de Leon from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao:

The 2008 Pulitzer winner for fiction features a protagonist whose unabashed geekiness and idealism render him more charming than truly pathetic thanks to Junot Diaz’s deft pen. Despite the tragic fate that ultimately befalls him (whatever, it’s spoiled right there in the title), Oscar de Leon’s rabid enthusiasm for science fiction and fantasy is endearingly infectious. Even book-loving readers who quite loathe both genres can likely relate to the wonderfully dizzy emotions surrounding the discovery of brand new tropes and themes ripe for exploration and dissection.

Jo March from Little Women:

She may have come of age at a time when educated women were considered a lark — even the men in her life refer to her with masculine appellations and pronouns — but social expectations never once doused this fiery, spirited fan favorite. Feminist before feminism was a thing, Jo March (based somewhat on Pennsylvania author Louisa May Alcott) challenges social norms with her desire to fight alongside her father during the Civil War. Oh, and she’s kind of a giant book dork, too. Jo’s love of literature inspires her to write out plays for her sisters to perform, and she marries a professor who admires her wordy career aspirations, which also include working as an educator.

Henry Bemis from the Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last:”

Because, if the world ended, only the most obsessed bibliophile would gleefully write off the apocalypse as the ultimate in catching up on back reading. Obsessed to the point of pathology, in this case. Bumbling Henry Bemis — played by the legendary Ohio actor Burgess Meredith — almost loses his bank teller position at the beginning of one of the most famous Twilight Zone shorts because he just can’t put a good (or, probably even a bad) book down. This addiction ultimately saves his life, though, when he locks himself in a bank vault for quiet reading time and survives a nuke (the 1950s, everyone!), only for, well, it might be an iconic final twist, but we love you too much to ruin it.

Yomiko Readman from Read or Die:

Whether one picks up the Read or Die novels, manga, or anime series (nobody can accuse creator Hideyuki Kurata of ignoring multiple media audiences), the woman codenamed “The Paper” universally stays true to the cause of bibliophilia. She loves books so much, she even telepathically manipulates the eponymous substance to do her bidding! That may sound like a totally doofus superpower, but seriously. Ever slice open your index finger on a slice of looseleaf? Imagine that on ALL THE BODY PARTS. And bulletproof. Not so totally doofus now, huh? Anyways, Yomiko Readman works for the British Library as a secret agent snatching up rare and important literary finds from the bad guys. Quite a dream gig for someone who loves the written word more than she does most people!

Indiana Jones from the Indiana Jones series:

Seeing as how he works as an archaeology professor when he’s not acting out the fantasies of every adventure enthusiast, it’s not an illogical jump to assume Harrison Ford’s iconic action hero enjoys picking up a book or two. Although with all that Nazi-and-Kali-cult smashing Indy’s gotta do, he probably has little time to hang up his fedora and whip, snuggle up next to the fire, and catch up on the ancient history and languages he might not know. He obviously did at some point, though, because all his fun times involve just as much mental as they do physical prowess.

Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series:

Without super nerd Hermione Granger by his side, the beloved Harry Potter never could’ve ultimately vanquished Lord Voldemort’s attempts to Take Over The World. The girl hooked herself up with a watch that lets her stop time and take two classes at once, for Snape’s sake. That takes some serious dedication to absorbing up knowledge. Young girls who grew up with J.K. Rowling’s now-classic young adult series and harbored a love of learning in their hearts considered her a fabulous role model proving they could both kick butt and score straight As. When they weren’t ripping her apart for hooking up with Ron over Harry, anyway.

Huey Freeman from The Boondocks:

Cartoonist Aaron McGruder may write Huey Freeman as way more cynical and morose than a mere child ought to be, but his intelligence and insight make him a thoroughly compelling and interesting protagonist — one who still carries the same flaws as his fellow youth, though good luck getting him to come to terms with that. All his fascinating musings on race and class relations in America likely stem from his massive personal library and passion for staying updated on current events via newspaper. By contrast, little brother Riley, whom he still quite loves, shuns the intellectual life and prefers letting pop culture and negative stereotypes dictate his tastes and personality.

Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Everyone who’s watched at least one Ninja Turtles episode or movie has their favorite, even if they’re too afraid of seeming like a massive geek for admitting which one. Often prone to Aykroydian streams of technical jargon, Donatello loves him some tinkering, though in some incarnations his inventions crumble more often than they actually work. Beyond this prowess with all things blinking, booping, and frequently binary, he definitely stands as the most learned of the pizza-loving bunch, whose brains have saved them from many a totally un-radical encounter with Krang or Bebop and Rocksteady. So the lesson here is read lots and lots. And, someday, you too might end up on the world’s most fearsome fighting team. Bo staff skills also help.

Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic:

She’s basically the Belle of this upcoming generation and calls a library home — in the literal sense. As a magic practitioner, Twilight Sparkle often loses herself in her studies and rejects overtures of friendship many times for fear they might compromise, well, pretty much everything. But, like the show’s subtitle states, there’s plenty to be learned about the world from connecting with and loving others, which requires experience instead of printed-up pages. For bibliophiles who so often forget the importance of striking a balance, this lavender lady teaches some pretty useful little lessons.

Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters:

Played to maximum adorkability by the legendary Harold Ramis, badass scientist Egon Spengler served as the brainy foil to Peter’s smarm charm, Ray’s spastic enthusiasm, and Winston’s refreshingly wry normalcy. Decades of reading and writing about science — mostly parapsychology, in which he holds a doctorate — when blended with general awkwardness make him the Ghostbusters’ go-to guy when it comes to advice about “spores, molds, and fungi” and crossing the streams.

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird:

Harper Lee never set out to write a literary (and, later, cinematic) icon, but the calm, quiet dignity of this bookish lawyer has inspired readers for more than 50 years. He endures because he applies his prodigious studies and readings into fighting for social justice causes, even though the surrounding culture prides itself on racist and anti-intellectual ideologies. Even though he possesses some pretty lethal handgun skills, as evidenced when he puts a rabid dog out of its misery, all his most nail-biting fighting scenes go down peacefully in the courtroom.

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Librophile provides completely legal free audiobooks for both mobile and PC. You can browse the latest book by keywords, genre or language. Listen to chapters online, or play a sample before downloading it. Librophile offers many free audiobooks and ebooks of different genres from Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” to “Romeo and Juliet”.

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There are two ways to eat a cake.
You can eat it in small pieces.
Or gobble the whole thing down.

Most of us would like to gobble, whether it comes to cake or learning

And like cake, learning needs to be tackled in small portions. Small portions not only help you learn, but help you learn a lot faster. Here are three core reasons why:

1) The sleep factor
2) The tiredness factor
3) The mistake factor.

Let’s start with the sleep factor

When you learn something, the brain tries to make sense of it. And then it goes about doing whatever it’s supposed to do. Then you go to bed. You might get just 6 hours of sleep, but in that time your brain is processing parts of your day. And if you’ve learned a new skill, there’s a good chance it’s doing just that—processing your new skill.

My niece, Marsha is just 8 (at the time of writing this article)

And she comes across to my office to learn to implement a concept called Bal-Vis-X. It’s a combination of skills that make students sharper and smarter than ever before. But here’s what happens during our exercise.

At first, Marsha struggles with a new exercise (there are over 300 exercises in the entire program). And we don’t force the issue. She just goes home and goes to sleep. Then she comes back for the next session. In between those two sessions, nothing has changed. The only difference is the sleep factor. Yet, almost immediately you can see the difference.

And the same applies to your learning

You can learn just about anything. And then it’s time to sleep. The very next day there will be a difference. Whether you will be able to discern the difference or not isn’t relevant, there will be a difference, nonetheless.

Over weeks and months you’ll be able to see a chunky difference. And sleep, believe it or not, plays a massive role. So yes, turning off that stupid TV (yes, stupid) will make you a lot smarter. But then, can’t bulk learning make you smarter? Surely the brain can absorb a lot more information at one go. Yes it can, but there’s a problem called tiredness that steps right in.

2) The tiredness factor

Bulk learning is plainly ineffective when compared with daily learning—and you don’t need a research scientist to tell you that. If you’re flirting with a new skill, the brain is under tremendous pressure. It’s trying to absorb what’s being written, work out the context and—because it’s a skill—apply it to your job or your life. Think about the amount of glucose that sucks up from your body. Now multiply that learning over 3 hours, or a day, and what you’ll find are drop outs.

It would seem that you’ve heard it all, and yet unless you have a phenomenal ability, there’s a chance you lost little chunks past the first ten minutes of instruction. As the learning advances, you start losing bigger chunks.

Now admittedly this depends on your level of skill. Let’s say you already know a lot about Photoshop, and you’re sitting in a Photoshop seminar, your brain doesn’t strain too much. But the moment some new features come up, your brain has to do a fair bit of work. The more facts you have to remember the more tired it gets and dropouts are inevitable. It’s only when you see the work of others, working on the same exercise, that you realise how many subtleties you’ve missed.

When you do daily learning, you get to re-examine what you’ve learned—and what you’ve missed. And this brings us to the third part: The mistake factor.

3) The mistake factor

If you do something every day, you learn from new mistakes every day. If you bulk your learning the mistakes are all a blur. But daily mistakes get highlighted. And not just your mistakes, but in a group, the mistakes of the entire group. There’s more than a good chance that a group of just 5-7 people will make as many as 5-15 mistakes in a single day. This is because everyone interprets information differently, and executes differently.

So you get to learn—and more importantly, revise what you know. And what you don’t know. Bulk learning is not as efficient, because the mistakes are made en masse, and the teacher may not be overly keen to point out 35 mistakes in one day. Over a week, 35 mistakes are just 5 mistakes a day. Every mistake gets its own spotlight and hence you get the chance to eliminate those mistakes systematically.

And yet most of us believe in bulk learning

And this is because we’re in a hurry. Yet, the best way to learn something, is to slow things down considerably. It takes most people about 2-3 years to become extremely proficient at a skill like writing or drawing. Yet with the right teacher and the right system this can be shortened to just 6-8 months. And that’s because the pace slows down considerably. You detect and fix more errors. And what is talent, but the systematic reduction of errors?

Most people don’t really think much about how they learn. Generally you assume learning comes naturally. You listen to someone speak either in conversation or in a lecture and you simply absorb what they are saying, right? Not really. In fact, I find as I get older that real learning takes more work. The more I fill my brain with facts, figures, and experience, the less room I have for new ideas and new thoughts. Plus, now I have all sorts of opinions that may refute the ideas being pushed at me. Like many people I consider myself a lifelong learner, but more and more I have to work hard to stay open minded.

But the need for learning never ends, so your desire to do so should always outweigh your desire to be right. The world is changing and new ideas pop up everyday; incorporating them into your life will keep you engaged and relevant. The following are the methods I use to stay open and impressionable. They’ll work for you too. No matter how old you get.

1. Quiet Your Inner Voice

You know the one I am talking about. It’s the little voice that offers a running commentary when you are listening to someone. It’s the voice that brings up your own opinion about the information being provided. It is too easy to pay more attention to the inner voice than the actual speaker. That voice often keeps you from listening openly for good information and can often make you shut down before you have heard the entire premise. Focus less on what your brain has to say and more on the speaker. You may be surprised at what you hear.

2. Argue With Yourself

If you can’t quiet the inner voice, then at least use it to your advantage. Every time you hear yourself contradicting the speaker, stop and take the other point of view. Suggest to your brain all the reasons why the speaker may be correct and you may be wrong. In the best case you may open yourself to the information being provided. Failing that, you will at least strengthen your own argument.

3. Act Like You Are Curious

Some people are naturally curious and others are not. No matter which category you are in you can benefit from behaving like a curious person. Next time you are listening to information, make up and write down three to five relevant questions. If you are in a lecture, Google them after for answers. If you are in a conversation you can ask the other person. Either way you’ll likely learn more, and the action of thinking up questions will help encode the concepts in your brain. As long as you’re not a cat you should benefit from these actions of curiosity.

4. Find the Kernel of Truth

No concept or theory comes out of thin air. Somewhere in the elaborate concept that sounds like complete malarkey there is some aspect that is based upon fact. Even if you don’t buy into the idea, you should at least identify the little bit of truth from whence it came. Play like a detective and build your own extrapolation. You’ll enhance your skills of deduction and may even improve the concept beyond the speaker’s original idea.

5. Focus on the Message Not the Messenger

Often people shut out learning due to the person delivering the material. Whether it’s a boring lecturer, someone physically unappealing, or a member of the opposite political party, the communicator can impact your learning. Even friends can disrupt the learning process since there may be too much history and familiarity to see them as an authority on a topic. Separate the material from the provider. Pretend you don’t know the person or their beliefs so you can hear the information objectively. As for the boring person, focus on tip two, three, or four as if it were a game, thereby creating your own entertainment.